ON AIR: Ssaagala AgalamiddePresenter: D Kasasa / B Lubega / S Mumanya

COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES TO MANAGE MAKERERE UNIVERISTY HOSPITAL

Officials at Makerere have finalized plans for the College of Health Sciences (CHS) to take over the full management of the University hospital effective July 1.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Prof Barnabas Nawangwe confirmed the development last evening while meeting staff at the University Hospital to discuss the procedure.

He said that university council decided Makerere College of Health Sciences to take over the management of the Hospital in order to have the university teaching health facility.

Nawangwe added that all major decisions on the hospital realignment will be taken by the college in consultation with the university management.

According to the Principal of the College of Health Sciences Prof. Charles Ibingira, the move to take over the University Hospital dates back to 2010.

Prof Ibingira says the college has over 450 undergraduate and graduate students who will come to work at the university hospital citing an example of other international universities such as the University of Michigan whose teaching hospital is one of the best hospitals in the United States.

Before 1972, the university maintained a health post known as Makerere University Students Health Service or Sick Bay at the current Makerere University Police Post. In 1972, when President Idi Amin expelled Asians, the university acquired the premises formerly known as Nile Nursing Home located on Makerere hill road off Gadaffi Road about two kilometers southwest of Mulago National Referral Hospital.

The university Sick Bay relocated to the new premises. On 16 February 1978, President Amin visited the Sick Bay and elevated it to a Hospital status.

According to Makerere University Hospital Situation Report of 2015 conducted by the students’ guild, the hospital as of July 2015 was offering comprehensive health care to the students, staff and their families as well as the surrounding communities serving a population of about 60,000 people.